The World Cheese Awards (WCA) is the largest cheese competition in the world, held since 1988 in various countries. Back in 2022, the competition was planned to be held in Ukraine. However, due to the ongoing Russian invasion, the WCA in Ukraine has been postponed, and Ukrainian cheeses will compete for the title of the world’s best cheese on the international stage for the fourth year in a row.
This year, the event will take place on 13–15 November in Bern, Switzerland.
As usual, both large cheese companies and craft producers are eligible to participate. The main requirement is documented proof of product quality and safety. The event’s partners and official representatives in Ukraine are Ardis Group.
With the support of Switzerland as part of the Swiss-Ukrainian Programme “Higher Value Added Trade from the Organic and Dairy Sector in Ukraine” (QFTP), the cheese community ProCheese by Ardis Group will provide Ukrainian cheese producers with assistance in:
- Selecting cheeses that have a competitive advantage in the contest.
- Registering cheeses on the official WCA platform.
- Describing, packaging, and labeling cheeses according to contest rules.
- Organizing the transportation of cheeses from Ukraine to Switzerland.
For producers, participation in an international competition offers several advantages:
- Promotion of their brand abroad;
- Opportunity to introduce their product to foreign buyers with the potential for establishing export channels;
- A chance to earn a globally recognized award from a professional jury and use it to promote their cheese in the domestic market.
The registration form for participants and information on participation can be found at the link.
Participation is free for cheese makers from the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Odesa, and Mykolaiv regions who are/were in the combat zone.
You can watch a video about how the international competition took place in 2024.